We want to Migrate to windows11 OS from windows10 in our orggnaztion bu twe have few concerns

Question

Dear Community,

We have 4 sites & each site has its WSUS Server.
We have one domain and have four Domain Controllers, 1 on each site.
We want to Migrate to windows11 OS from windows10 in our organization but we have few concerns:

1. We have Wsus Servers Upgrade to Windows11 either through WSUS Directly or should we do the upgarde manually on individual machine manually by directly dowlading Updates from Microsoft Servers? What is the best option? And how should we proceed with it?
2. How should we Separate out specific Systems and upgrade only those in case we do it through WSUS Server?Like what should be the criteria on selecting devices?
3. What happens to the License Status & its activation If we Upgrade from Windows10 to Windows11 as we dont have nay windows 11 License. We only hahve windows Activation Keys? 4.What is the compatibility of Office 2013 & office 2016 with new Windows 11?

Looking forward to your Response.

Thanks.

Answer 1

1. Why do it manually? There's no advantage. Approve the NEEDED upgrade in WSUS and your computers that meet the hardware requirements will upgrade. I would of course recommend a test group first though - so that you can test your applications and everything with it. My 8 part blog series explains how to setup such a test group so that you have a good representation of your client systems. I will link to Part 1 and I recommend reading through the entire guide. Part 3 is required for Upgrades, part 4 and 5 deal with the policies and GPO linking for an inheritance setup, and part 6 is the approvals process.
   https://www.ajtek.ca/wsus/how-to-setup-manage-and-maintain-wsus-part-1-choosing-your-server-os/
2. Test Group - https://www.ajtek.ca/wsus/how-to-setup-manage-and-maintain-wsus-part-6-selecting-your-test-systems-the-approvals-process/ - you can review the Upgrades view (created in part 2) to learn what systems are telling WSUS that they need the upgrade.
3. Windows 10 and 11 share the same licensing and activation methods. If your systems activate on Windows 10, they will activate on Windows 11.
4. Office 2013 is not supported on Windows 11 (https://office-watch.com/2022/will-your-microsoft-office-will-work-on-windows-11/) and that doesn't mean that it won't work, but it really should be reviewed and upgraded anyways - https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/office/end-of-support-for-office-2013-90e4b0d1-098f-4656-b6e7-8b13b67ed62f - as it is ending support in 2023. Office 2016 on the other hand does support Windows 11.

Answer 2

Hi,

If you have an OVS license agreement with Microsoft, you should have windows 11 licenses that you can use for the upgrade. If not, check if the activation keys you have work for windows 11 because the keys are not the license, but it’s the license you have with your agreement that covers you. Office 2013 and 2016 work fine with windows 11.

As far as upgrading is concerned, please see this article:

https:// community. spiceworks. com/topic/2361174-steps-to-upgrade-to-windows-11-from-windows-10-wsus

Note: This is a non-Microsoft website. The page appears to be providing accurate, safe information. Watch out for ads on the site that may advertise products frequently classified as a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Products). Thoroughly research any product advertised on the site before you decide to download and install it.

Thanks

Answer 3

There currently is only 1 release of Windows 11 in GA - 21H2 (Previews of 22H2 don't count).

Your thoughts of the upgrades are not what I have ever experienced since Windows 10.